Symphony

All I could think about for a while was Lotus Symphony, but now I am over it. 

Logic -- Analysis -- Synthesis -- Intuition

It will take a great deal of work to get int incorpoating all of those into a 'chat' (my word to use rather than "presentation).  I think that may be while so many of us fail at using PowerPoint effectively.  We are so focused on the bullets and designs (not to mention the animations) that we have seen that we often forget about the entirety of the content and we end up dialing in on the minutiae. The key is knowing what is most important for which situation?  

I don't think that I have the full concept of The Learning Record, but it seems that it may be somewhat similar to portfolios?  It clearly focuses on growth, learning and activity rather than simply preparing for a standardized test. 

It also seems to be in place in a university setting, but I wonder if it can't be implemented in a secondary situation pretty easily?  Computer access may be an issue for some schools -- my own included, but I think that it could be possible?

Technology Fails us?

Hawisher & Selfe have done a nice job outlining the flaws in our reporting of our own use of computer technology in our classrooms, especially with the self reporting of the extraordinary gains we make in democratizing the classroom.  I try to make all my students equal, and even try to level the field so that everyone feels that they are equal contributors to the classroom activities. 

Furthermore, I am struck by the statement that "we must begin to identify the ways in which technology can fail us" (41).  Very often I hear that technology, and computers in specific, with be the panacea for the woes of education as well as the equalizer to bring all socio-economic classes to the same level of education and opportunity. I wonder, also, if we shouldn't change the process by which we adopt technology for our schools and classrooms.  Is the technology we adopt and implement actually more divisive of the economic classes and racial groups? 

The process by which we adopt technology often feels to be more about public relations (e.g. 1 computer for every two students, interactive white boards in each classroom, etc...).  Is there real thought given to the pedagogical, social and economic impacts of the technology we actually do adopt/implement? 

So, I guess that I must ask if the technology has failed us or whether we have failed our students in our process of evaluating the technologies we should be able to offer to them.

I always was a pack rat

Sirc continues with the idea that "text as box = author as collector" (117).

This speaks to me as this is how I gain much of the content of my own works.  I am forever collecting snippets, words and phases from whatever happens in the world around me.  It may be from others speaking, the radio, other texts, observations of events, images of scenery and landscapes; I am not sure where it all comes from, but it all goes in my little journal as pastings, cuttings and recordings which I then use in various fashions.

I guess that makes me  plagiarist, doesn't it?  Nothing I have is truly my own, but re-sequenced, newly-nuanced, or even newly paired concepts.  I think that it is folly to say that what we choose to compose is purely imagined and created solely from our minds.  In truth, all we choose to say, write, draw, display is influenced by our experience, isn't it?

Sirc's layout style

I am trying to decide how Sirc's layout makes the text/message appeal to me.  I think that I am not seeing the why of the layout as much as I am questioning the why?  Is it effective if I am only wondering why it is formatted/arranged in such a fashion?  On page 113, is that the staircase from Duchamp's Nude Descending..?


113 -- "'I considered painting as a means of expression, Marcel said in an interview, 'not an end in itself [...P]ainting should not be exclusively retinal or visual; it should have to do with the gray matter, with our urge for understanding.' (135-136).

I must address this as I love it.  Too often we read a text, whatever the purpose may be, but only satisfy ourselves with what is on the page.  I hope that I can bring this concept to my studets as we explore both reading and writing.  If we see only as far as the actual text on an actual page/screen, we shortchange the composer, the writer....

Visual literacy

Selfe argues that "Teachers continue to privilege alphabetic literacy over visual literacy, in other words, because they have already invested so heavily in writing, writing instruction and writing programs--and we have achieved some status as practitioners and specialist of writing"(71).

I wonder, as I always do, if this is the fault of teachers or the system or both?  In the National content standards and most state standards, evaluation of student success is wrongly placed on doing as something 'should' be done, how it always has been done. 

I have some personal fear, also, that with a possibly increased focus on image, less attention will be given to words -- and I wonder if thought and language (words?) are intricately coupled.  I need to explore what Steven Pinker might say?

So I am caught in the the teacher conundrum: Should I teach my kids to explore more or write to the norm to which they are being held -- how can I best blend the two while teaching my students to best read their situation -- situational literacy?

Is it just my fear? or my mode of thought?

Wysocki further discusses changes and variations in composition and argues, "We can experiment with building arguments that use photographs or drawings instead of words, for example, (as both Cynthia Selfe and I describe on our various chapters), and we can experiment with alphabetic texts whose visibility is more foregrounded in typographic and layout choices" (16). 

My mind automatically rushes to my layout and design work with yearbook, and formerly newspaper, as a teacher and writer/designer, but it is the words that always captivate me as I read.  I neglect most images, and even font choices unless the font causes the piece to be difficult to decipher, in most of the readings I have done.  In most cases, I consider the image work to be superfluous, especially in textbooks, and many of the images online tend to slant to the commercial aspect of web traffic.

I know font and design can captivate the attention and grasp that attention, but  I wonder if it is just that -- grasping for attention in a image and sound saturated civilization?  I know that I am leaning toward the side of the cynic, yet I still worry for the inherent meaning in the compositions of writers and the depth of that meaning.  

Outside the lines

Wysocki posits a valuable question in terms of software design and functionality as it pertains to composition: "how many word-processing or Web page composing software packages do you know that encourage scribbling, doodling, writing outside the margins, or writing in anything but straight lines?" (6).

This feels to be a pretty important question as we look at software which helps us create, whether it is Web page composition, word processing, or some type of photo- or graphic design software.  It feels so often, that the software would rather tell me, the composer, what the piece should look like, feel like, or even what words I wish to use and that I need to work almost too hard to attempt to circumvent the predictive nature of the application as it attempts to guess/dictate what I say and the way that I wish to say it.

So often, my kids won't be able to correctly format their work because the application default settings are making them feel that they will be wrong if they change it.

Wysocki - entry 1

I find it interesting that what has piqued my interest most so far is that this book is not bound well.  This isn't a problem for digital texts, but I think it speaks to how crucial every extraneous aspect of publishing really is.  The font choice, screen colors and column layout will certainly appeal to the reader or detract from the readability. 

On page 6, Wysocki states, "There is little or nothing, for example, that encourages someone composing a Web page to think about how and why, in her place and time, her choices of color and typeface an words and photograph and spatial arrangement shape the relationship she is constructing with her audience..." -- I cannot state that I agree with this as much time, effort and study has gone into the readability and accessibility of web pages.  (see http://dotgov.com/2010/04/accessibility-hack-3-testing-colours-to-enhance-readability/ for just one example). I also know that visual text is crucial to yearbook publications as well. 

On the other hand...

How to become a better searcher.

I remember using Boolean keyword searches in my undergrad and early graduate school years.  It was trial and error and often I would enter terms and symbols to arrive at few or meaningless results.  It was a bit frustrating, but it was the process by which I could find the information that I needed to use. 

Now I have the expectation of finding whatever I want as soon as I type a word into the Google Search bar.  But I don't even need to do that much as Google has worked it out so that the page will suggest the full terminology for what I am seeking before I type it.  So maybe I didn't really want to search for Kayaks and really wanted to search for Kalahari....I don't know.  Maybe I wanted to look at the two combined? 

Nonetheless, I think that one of the better ideas that I am gaining from reading Halavais is that I need to work on helping my students reach Beyond Google. They need to realize, something I have known for years but not practiced well, that Google is one tool we can use when trying to find information on the web.  It is not the only tool we can or should use. 

The funny part is, I read and view multiple news sources in print, via broadcast and online and I stress to my students that a varied source of news will help fill in the gaps in reporting and will help defuse the inevitability of bias, but I don't think that I have ever helped them recognize this in their online search methods. 

I will fix that.

and this is why my journals are so spotty too....

Wow. It's been a while since I posted.  Not good.  I think that I need to address that I am not doing well at this blogging thing.  I just don't really like to sit down at the computer and exchange my thoughts, feelings and ideas this way. 

I think that it's a matter of a fear of laying too much personal out there at the same time as feeling depersonalized in the writings of others. So that makes me just not MAKE the time to sit at the computer and write and read (well....my teaching load and my beautiful wife and three fantastic daughters are to blame/thank as well). 

I was thinking about how much time I do use electronic devices for communication and I am frustrated with how much time it does take.  I have been tracking my email use just for work -- it occupies 1-2 hours each work day.  That is a great frustration for me, but it's necessary, isn't it?

And email is more personal, sometimes.  At least someone needs to choose to write to you rather than a faceless, nameless audience. 

I know that wasn't an effective segue to my considerations of audience, but I still have trouble seeing my professor and my classmates as my readership even though I SEE them every week.  I like to talk and see the response and vary my topic or argumentation based on their responses, both verbal and non. 

I don't mean to insult those who blog so effectively for their readers.  I think that is great, but I haven't found the blog that I can follow so much.  I haven't felt the pull to always see what is said next.  I still need to push myself to sit at the monitor and read and search the net for that blogger who will become my steady read.  

So anyway, that is my blathering way to explain my lack of posts and responses in the past two weeks. 

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